Weaknesses Are Best Shared
by Helenaholland
Summary: Clint has been keeping a secret from the avengers, he's deaf and only Natasha knows. When something happens during a battle how will the others react? And what will the impact of this be afterwards? Rating for language.
1. Chapter 1

Silence.

Clint looked around, there was no sound and yet he could see that there should be. He could see chaos, explosions, robots falling, there should be a deafening amount of sound, so many different sounds overlapping each other that it was hard to differentiate between the different sources. But there wasn't, there was just silence and Clint knew what that meant.

'Shit,' he thought, 'this is really not what I need right now.'

Clint felt a presence behind and turned just in time to see Tony Stark in his Iron Man suit blow up the robot that was just about to attack him. Without his hearing he could not hear the robots that were sneaking up on him, he needed to do something about that fast.

Clint quickly ran towards a building and pressed his back against the wall, this way he would not get surprised from behind again. He carried on fighting any robots that came his way and shot an arrow at any others. He knew that Steve was probably yelling orders at them all through his earpiece but right now there was no way to know what those orders were.

'If I just stay here then when this is over Tasha will figure out what is wrong and come and help me out,' Clint reasoned as he shot another robot that was sneaking up on Thor.

After what felt like hours Tony managed to find and catch the guy who was controlling the robots and the fight was finally over. Clint slumped against the wall that we was backed up against, he hated it when he could not hear anything. His hearing was an important tool for him, especially in battle.

Tony landed next to him and presumably started talking to him but Clint wasn't sure, Tony's faceplate was still down and so he couldn't see his lips moving. Tony turned to look at him, his faceplate still down, a few seconds later.

'He probably asked a question,' Clint reasoned, 'damnit! Why does he have to have a faceplate?'

Having seen the distressed look on Clint's face, Natasha started making her way towards the two avengers.

"Clint?" Natasha said as she walked towards the two, making sure to keep her head facing towards Clint.

Clint's face lit up when he saw that Natasha was finally here. He nodded his head, not trusting his voice when he couldn't hear it and not wanting to use sign language in front of Tony.

"What happened?"

Clint looked over at Tony who had brought his faceplate up by this point. Clint sighed and pointed at his ear hoping that she would understand what he was trying to say.

Natasha, having understood, nodded and grabbed Clint's arm and started to walk towards the other avengers.

As they were walking Natasha subtly signed, "You have to tell them," to Clint. Reluctantly he nodded as they reached the group.

Natasha started talking to everyone and Clint carefully watched her lips to see what she was saying.

"Hey guys. So we need to get back to the tower soon."

"Why?" Steve asked as he looked around at the destruction around them, "Shouldn't we help clear up here?"

"Look, we need to get back because right now Clint can't hear anything and that needs to get sorted out as soon as possible."

The other avengers all turned to look at Clint, worried and confused looks on their faces.

"He can't hear?" Thor asked.

"Did his ears get damaged during the battle?" Bruce asked as he pulled on some clothes having just transformed back from the Hulk.

"No his ears didn't get damaged during the battle. He has had damaged hearing for a long time."

"How bad is the damage?" Tony asked as he looked at Clint, now understanding why his previous question hadn't been answered.

"He's 80% deaf. He uses hearing aids but something happened to them."

Clint tapped Natasha on the shoulder and signed something to her and she translated for the rest of them, "He says that one of the robots hit with an electrical pulse and it shorted out his hearing aids."

"Alright," Steve said in an authoritative voice, "let's get back to the tower. Does he have spares there?"

Natasha nodded at the same time as Clint and the group of superheroes started to walk towards the tower.

As soon as they arrived Clint ran off towards his room to retrieve his spare hearing aids. The other avengers all watched him run off and then turned to Natasha, they were all bursting with questions.

"Why doesn't he keep his spares with him?" Bruce asked.

"He never kept them with him because they could still get damaged. Coulson used to keep a pair with him in case Clint ever needed them, he just never got around to giving a pair to anyone else to look after since Coulson died." Natasha said as the group all sat down in the lounge.

"Why didn't he tell us?" Steve asked as he sat down on a chair next to where Bruce was sat.

"He doesn't like telling people," Natasha said as she took a seat next to Tony on one of the couches, "he didn't think that it was necessary to tell anyone because usually it makes no difference. He didn't even tell me, I found out by accident."

"It was hardly an accident Tasha," Clint said as he walked into the room, he looked much calmer now that he had regained his hearing, "you hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D's systems and looked at my profile."

"I did that," Tony said, "I didn't see anything about you being deaf."

"That's because since Tasha found out I got it removed from my profile as anyone that needed to know did and so it wasn't a necessity to have it on my record," Clint said as he sat down on the other side of Natasha on the couch.

"Were you going to tell us?"

Clint turned to look at Bruce, who had asked the question, "Eventually I probably would have. I don't like people to know my weaknesses so I don't tell people."

"We all have our weaknesses," Steve said.

"I know, I just don't like to broadcast mine around the whole of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"We understand," Thor said as he looked around the room, "Just tell us things in future so that we can help."

Clint nodded in agreement, they were meant to be a team so they had to know things about each other and trust each other. "Alright, but that applies to everyone."

The other avengers all looked at each other and nodded.

"Sure."

"Seems fair."

"So does anyone have any weaknesses that we should know about?" Bruce asked, "I think debilitating fears also count as weaknesses we need to know about. You know in case something happens that you are really scared of and we need to help you out."

"Well..." Steve began but stopped here as all the avengers turned to look at him, "it's not really extreme or anything but... the cold, as in really really cold is something that I try to avoid. It brings back memories of the ice."

They all nodded and made a mental note to make sure that Steve was never extremely cold, it was always best to avoid flashbacks.

Tony looked down at his hands, unsure if he could really speak up and tell them all. "Well, if we are all sharing," Tony took a deep breath, "I'm scared of being surrounded by water."

The avengers all turned to look at Tony, their eyes questioning. "You guys know how I was kidnapped in Afghanistan?" They all nodded, they had all read the profile on Tony, "Well my profile doesn't really go into detail but there was an element of torture involved. They pushed my head underwater repeatedly until I gave in and said that I would build them weapons. Ever since then I have avoided being in water as much as possible."

Tony looked up and saw that Steve, Bruce and Thor were all looking at him, a horrified look in their eyes. Clint and Natasha were looking at him with understanding, they had been through torture training and had experienced the same thing. However for Tony who had not been trained for situations like that, they both dreaded to think what it would have been like for him.

"Alright," Steve said to break the silence, "there will be no secrets about these important things anymore. We are a team and we need to know how to best help each other."

They all nodded in agreement but stayed sat down, most of them looking at their feet, thinking about what had been said.

A few minutes of silence passed before Tony decided to break it, "So... Drinks?"

"Hell yes!" Clint said glad that the silence had been broken, he had had enough silence for the next few weeks.

"Sure," Steve said, he may not be able to get drunk but he figured he may as well join in.

"Excellent idea," came Thor's enthusiastic cry.

Natasha said nothing but nodded at Tony as he started to stand up.

"I'll help," Bruce said as he stood up with Tony to go and fetch glasses and some bottles of whatever alcohol Tony had on hand.

The two men soon returned with glasses and a few bottles that Tony had nearby. They placed it all on the table in front of them before handing each of the avengers a glass and leaving everyone to pour themselves a drink.

When everyone had filled their glass with their chosen beverage they all leaned back in their chairs. Clint was about to take a sip when Steve lifted his glass of the table and said, "Well, we saved the day again."

"I'll drink to that," Tony said as he began to drink. Everyone else took this as a cue that they too could start to drink and soon the tower was filled with laughter and the sound of glasses hitting against each other.


	2. Chapter 2

Clint rubbed his eyes as he walked into the kitchen, they had stayed up really late drinking last night and now he was starting to regret it. As he reached the counter and turned on the coffee machine he realised that someone was watching him.

He turned around quickly, suddenly wishing that he had his bow on him, but relaxed when he saw who it was.

'It's just Tony,' Clint thought to himself as he let his muscles relax and he turned back to grab his cup of coffee, 'Thank God it's not Thor. I don't think I could deal with his booming voice this early in the morning.'

"You're jumpy this morning," Tony said as Clint sat down on a chair across the table from him.

Clint shrugged as he took a long drink from his mug and placed it down on the table, "I'm always jumpy. I am an assassin."

"That's true," Tony said as he stood up to grab another cup of coffee. Clint sat at the table and stared down at the surface.

"Tony..."

"Yes?"

"What you said last night..." Clint began but was cut off quickly.

"It doesn't change anything. I am still the same person and I am not suddenly fragile," Tony said, his tone was cold and harsh.

"I wasn't going to say any of that. I was just going to say that it was brave of you to tell us all," Tony turned to look at the archer but upon realising that Clint was telling the truth he seemed to relax a bit as he sat back down.

"Well, like we said last night. We need to know each other's weaknesses in case they are important during a battle. I had to tell."

"You could have just made up a story," Clint said as he looked Tony in the eye, "lied about some almost drowning accident as a kid. You didn't have to tell us about Afghanistan, that was brave."

Tony broke eye contact with Clint and looked at his hands, "It didn't occur to me at the time."

Clint was about to say something when he heard someone approach the door. He turned to see who was entering behind him and saw that Natasha was walking in.

"Hey," Tony called, Natasha nodded at him as she walked towards the fridge.

"You just finished your morning workout?" Clint asked as Natasha pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge and moved to sit at the table next to Clint.

"Yeah. I'm going for a run in a bit if you want to join."

"Sounds good."

Clint noticed that Natasha was giving Tony an odd look across the table. "What's going on guys?"

Tony seemed keen to not say anything but Natasha glared at him so he quickly spoke up, "I was just wondering if I could take a look at your hearing aids."

"Why?"

"So I could improve them," Clint looked ready to interrupt but Tony held up a hand and continued talking, "I promise I won't do anything mad, or mess with the volume levels or anything. It's just that I can probably fix a few problems, like make sure they don't short out under high voltage."

Clint looked over at Natasha, she knew how protective of his hearing aids he was. It wasn't an issue of he hadn't gotten around to asking anyone to look after his spares since Coulson died, it was an issue of not trusting anyone with them. Coulson was the only one who Clint had ever trusted with his hearing aids.

"You can fix that?"

Tony nodded, "And any other problems you have."

Clint was quiet for a moment, wondering if there were any problems that he could think of with his aids. 'They've never really been a problem before. They did break once on a mission but we were never sure what happened to them. Coulson did mention about water damage though so it might have been the river I fell in.'

"Any chance you can make them waterproof? They broke last time I fell into a river. Coulson said that SHIELD couldn't fix that but do you think you can have a look?"

Tony looked thoughtful before nodding slightly, "I think I might be able to do it. I can try at least. Plus I can fix the pair that broke yesterday for you so you will have your spares back."

Clint looked at Tony with a knowing look in his eye, "To fix those you need a working pair don't you."

"Well kind of. I'd only need to have a quick look at them, borrow your working ones for, maybe an hour."

Clint was all set to say no when he looked over at Natasha who was looking at him sternly.

"It's only an hour Clint. One hour and they will be better than before with less chance of breaking and you will have your spare pair back."

Clint looked between Tony, with a slightly hopeful look on his face, and Natasha who was looking at him in a way that suggested if he refused she would take them off him by force.

"Fine," Clint gave in and pulled his hearing aids out of his ears and handed them to Tony. Tony looked like a kid at christmas who had been given the toy that they had been asking for all year. Tony quickly said something before running off towards his lab.

Clint sighed and turned to Natasha, waiting for a translation of what Tony had just said.

Natasha signed, "He said, 'One hour I promise.'"

Clint smiled slightly before standing up and going to his room. While the other avengers may know about his deafness, he didn't really want to deal with them without being able to hear what was going on.

'One hour,' Clint thought as he lay on his bed and looked up at the ceiling, 'this shouldn't be too bad.'


	3. Chapter 3

Clint was sat on his bed staring at the ceiling and he was bored out of his mind. He tried to avoid looking at the clock too much otherwise it would probably feel like even longer as he watched the seconds tick past.

'Who knew that one hour could feel so long?' Clint thought as he grabbed a ball from the table by his bedside and began to throw it at a target that was printed on the ceiling. As he threw and caught the ball, Clint's mind drifted and began to think about the significance of what he had done. It may not have seemed a big deal but to him, giving anyone access to his hearing aids, let alone letting them 'tinker' with it was a huge deal.

He was so engrossed with his thoughts that he didn't even notice when Tony opened the door to his room. He may not have been able to hear it but if Clint was not so concentrated on his thoughts he would have noticed the person in his room.

As it was Tony slowly opened the door and walked inside. Once he saw that Clint hadn't noticed him and probably wasn't going to, he began to wonder about his best course of action. 'I can't say anything because that won't catch his attention.'

Tony came to the conclusion that the only way to get Clint's attention was to poke him. Tony slowly moved closer to Clint and watched as he repeatedly threw the ball at the centre of the target and caught it again. Tony shook his head to stop himself from getting distracted by Clint's awesome accuracy skills and poked Clint's arm.

The second that Tony touched Clint's skin Clint flung himself upright and into a sitting position, his arms and hands in a position that suggested he was ready for a fight. Tony was slightly startled by this and held his hands up in the universal 'I-surrender' position and moved slightly backwards, still wary of the archer.

Clint relaxed when he saw that it was just Tony and let the ball, which had just been thrown in the air, land on the bed beside him. Clint held out his hand for his hearing aids. Tony placed them carefully in Clint's hands and watched as Clint quickly put them back into place.

"Thanks," Clint said as soon as he could hear things again. He hated it when the world went silent and he could not hear things. As Tony had just proven, it meant that things could sneak up on him and he could not afford to let that happen to him.

"No problem. So I've mended the spare pair and I am just working on the improvements. Want to help?" Tony asked as he sat down on the edge of Clint's bed.

"I don't think I can be of much help."

"Sure you can. I have a few ideas as to how I can improve them, all you'd have to do is wait until I have done that and then help me see if the improvements are working properly."

"Sure."

Tony, having heard the agreement from Clint, jumped off the bed and walked towards the door. "Come on then. I want to see if my ideas will work or not."

Clint flipped off the bed and followed Tony towards the lab. They walked in silence until they reached the lab and Tony immediately started to order the various robots around. Clint found a seat and sat down, he was careful not to touch anything that he didn't know what it was. Which, unfortunately, meant that there were not many things he would allow himself to touch.

"You've got a lot of tech down here Stark," Clint commented as his eyes scanned the room.

"Well I am at the forefront of technology," Tony said as he started to do some work on the hearing aids.

There was a moment of silence after this, Clint didn't have anything to say and Tony was concentrating on the work he was doing. Just as the silence was starting to bug Clint Bruce walked in the lab and walked towards him.

"Hey," Clint greeted the doctor as he sat down in the seat next to him.

"Hey, he got you helping him out with his testing?"

Clint nodded and Bruce chuckled in a knowing way, "I'll stick around then. Don't want him blowing you up or anything."

Clint looked at Bruce and said, "Blow me up? We are just working on my hearing aids, nothing is going to blow up with that."

"Well, you never know with Tony. He seems to be able to make an explosion out of anything."

"That's an exaggeration Bruce," Tony said sounding quite offended by the suggestion.

"Need I remind you about the time when you were working on Cap's shield?" Bruce retorted, a smile on his face.

Tony didn't respond to this so Clint decided to question it, "What happened with Steve's shield?"

"Nothing," Tony said as he walked over to a different desk, "ready for some experiments?"

Bruce shook his head as he stood up, "Promise you won't blow us all up?"

"I promise I won't do it intentionally," was Tony's reply as Clint stood up and walked over to where Tony was stood.

'This is going to go well,' Clint thought as he looked over at Tony and Bruce, 'at least Bruce might be able to stop it before it leads to an explosion.' Bruce walked over and handed Clint a pair of goggles, 'Or maybe he won't be much help.'


	4. Chapter 4

Natasha looked up from the book she was reading as she heard the sound of footsteps approaching the living room. When she saw who it was, and what they looked liked, Natasha struggled to stop herself from laughing.

"What happened to you guys?" she asked as she bent the corner of her page in the book and placed it on the sofa beside her. "You look like you had a run in with Thor and his lightning."

Clint gave her a death glare and walked over to an armchair before slumping down in it, Bruce said nothing but pointed at Tony behind him and moved to sit on the sofa opposite Natasha.

Tony sighed and knew that he had to be the one to speak up, "I may have caused a small fire," from the glare he received from Clint and the state of the three men, Natasha assumed that was quite an understatement.

"How?"

"Well, I finished upgrading both pairs of hearing aids and I just wanted to test the spares to see how much voltage they could take."

"And?"

"I forgot that they were still wet from the water testing... and that they were sat on top of some paper."

"So when you put a charge through them?"

"The water got electrified and set the paper on fire."

"Which," Clint continued knowing that Tony wasn't going to elaborate more, "then managed to set fire to the entire desk before one of the robots put it out with a fire extinguisher."

"Luckily," Bruce said, "JARVIS managed to stop the fire alarm from going off when he saw that the fire was being put out."

"Whatever guys, I'm going to have a shower," Tony said before exiting the room.

"So, the hearing aids are fixed and improved," Natasha said as she turned her gaze to Clint.

"Yeah, well, these ones are. Tony now has to repair the other ones as they got a bit damaged in the fire."

"That's good though, that they are improved."

"Sure, I'm going to have a shower as well," Clint stood up and stalked out of the room leaving Natasha and Bruce alone.

"Went well then?" Natasha asked as Bruce looked at her.

"Better than I expected. I honestly thought that he was going to find a way to make an explosion," Bruce said as he ran a hand through his hair, "so, all in all it was a success."

Natasha raised an eyebrow before conceding, "I guess with Tony, anything short of an explosion is a success."

"Yeah it is. I think I am going to lie down for a bit, the big guy got a bit angry with the whole fire thing."

Natasha nodded and Bruce too left the room. Shaking her head Natasha reached down and picked her book off the sofa beside her. Opening the book to the page she was on she smiled as she thought about her team, 'I swear that the enemies better hurry up if they want a chance of killing us. Tony seems determined to do it before they even get close.'


	5. Chapter 5

Clint pulled the bow string taught and released the arrow and watched it fly through the air. It hit exactly where Clint wanted it to and Clint put down his bow and walked towards the target. He'd been practicing for hours in the range. Tony had specially made this room for Clint to use for target practice, it included targets that moved at adjustable speeds as well as huge fans which could be adjusted to mimic different wind speeds.

As Clint reached the target he inspected his arrows to see how his aim was. Almost perfect, almost but not quite. One of the arrows was slightly off its mark, only by half a millimetre but Clint would not accept anything except perfection. 'After all,' he thought as he began to pull out his arrows, 'half a millimetre may not seem like much on a target but in a battle it can mean the difference between a dead or injured enemy and an alive one.'

Clint put the arrows he pulled out into the quiver on his back and made his way back to the end of the room that he was firing from. When he was about half way back he heard the sound of footsteps from the corridor outside, which was unusual as no one else used this room. He reached the end of the room but did not turn around to resume shooting, the person was probably coming to talk to him after all.

Steve walked into the shooting range and jumped slightly when he saw that Clint was glaring at him. "Sorry, I didn't mean to disrupt. I just wanted to talk to you about something."

Clint, now noticing that his face was probably in quite an angry state, smiled slightly at the Captain and waved him in, "Sorry, I always forget that my resting face is pretty scary," Clint swung the quiver off his back and sat down in one of the chairs on the edge of the room, "What did you want to talk about?"

Steve sat down in the seat next to Clint and looked at his hands, "I was just thinking about before, when your hearing aids broke and the fact that I couldn't do anything to help you."

"Steve, that is not your fault. I hadn't told you and so you didn't know that I was deaf."

"But even after Natasha told us I couldn't do anything until you had your hearing aids back in. I just felt helpless."

Clint looked at Steve and rested his hand on the Captain's shoulder, "None of you could do anything, that isn't your fault."

"Yeah, but I want to change that," Steve looked up at Clint as he said this and saw the various emotions flick through the archer's eyes as he processed what had been said.

"You want to be able to communicate with me when I don't have my hearing aids in?" Steve nodded, "You want to learn sign language?" Once again Steve nodded.

"You don't need to. I mean, Tony fixed the issues I had with my hearing aid so there should be no reason that I will ever not be able to hear you guys."

"You didn't know that the electrical pulse would short out your hearing aid, there could be something else that you are not prepared for that would mean that you have no way of communication. Besides, it seems like a good life skill," Clint looked Steve in the eye and saw that he was telling the truth, he honestly wanted to learn sign language.

"Look, Clint," Steve began as he shifted uncomfortably, "I want to be the best leader I can. I want to be able to help you when you are at your weakest and that is the same for all the team. If that means that I have to learn sign language to help you or keep an eye on Tony by bodies of water to make sure that he doesn't fall in and freak out, I don't mind. I know that Natasha knows sign language, whether you taught her or she learned in order to help you I don't know. All I do know is that if something happens to your hearing aid again then Natasha is the only one who can communicate with you and that's not okay. What if Natasha isn't there? Then we would be screwed. I just... I just want to be able to help you..." Steve trailed off and lowered his eyes to look down at his feet.

Clint looked at Steve, his mind still processing the speech he had just been given and the fact that Steve cared so much for all of them. "Alright I'll teach you," Steve whipped his head up and a huge smile spread across his face, "But," Steve's face started to fall again, "there is one condition."

"What?"

"You have to let me help you."

Steve looked shocked by this as he asked, "What do you think I need help with?"

"Steve," Clint paused for a moment wondering how to continue, "you were talking about how you want to look after all of us. Well I want to look after you," Steve still looked confused so Clint decided to be blunt, "You are bad when you start to get cold, I would also bet that if you were in a plane above water then you would start to freak out then too. You want to be able to keep an eye out for Tony, I want to keep an eye out for you. Let me be there for you when you start to get flashbacks or start to freak out, don't pretend to be all strong like nothing can hurt you. Like you said before, we are a team and so we need to be there for each other and let each other know when we are hurting, let me help you."

Steve lowered his head and looked down at his feet once more as he thought about what Clint said. After a moment Clint heard a small voice say, "Alright."

Clint smiled and clapped Steve on the shoulder, "Good. I'll start teaching you tomorrow if you want?"

"Yeah, tomorrow sounds good. Morning?"

Clint thought for a moment, knowing that if he agreed to the morning lesson he would not be able to train until the afternoon, "Sure, tomorrow morning."

'Training can wait for a few hours,' Clint thought, 'Yeah, I'll just train even harder after the lesson. It'll be fine.'


	6. Chapter 6

Clint looked up from the newspaper he was reading as Natasha walked in the room.

"Morning."

Natasha didn't respond to Clint's call but walked over to the coffee machine and grabbed a large cup full of the liquid. Clint watched in amusement as Natasha sipped the coffee and gave a small sigh.

"Tasha?" Natasha spun around rapidly, she hadn't noticed that anyone was in the room as she was too focused on getting her caffeine fix. Upon seeing that it was Clint Natasha gave a small smile and wandered over to sit at the table.

"Morning," Natasha said as she sunk into one of the seats and drank some more coffee, "What are you doing today? Want to do some training?"

"Maybe later on," Natasha looked at Clint oddly, he never gave up a chance for training, "I promised Steve that I'd start teaching him sign language this morning."

"Why this morning? Why not this afternoon when you are usually free?"

Clint sighed and ran a hand over his face, it was too early in the morning to argue with Natasha, "I agreed to this morning because Steve asked. I'll just train later, it's fine."

Natasha looked doubtful but said nothing as Steve walked in the room. "Morning!" Steve called as he walked over to the table and sat down.

"How are you so chipper in the morning?" Natasha asked as she drained the last of her coffee and stood up to get a refill, "Especially since you never drink any coffee."

"Don't know," Steve replied as he looked over at Natasha as she refilled her cup, "Guess it's a side effect of being a super soldier. I never liked coffee anyway."

Natasha gave Steve a confused look as she walked back to the table and sat down, "Clint?" the archer looked over at her, "What does he mean when he said 'I never liked coffee'. It makes no sense."

Clint chuckled, "I know Tasha. It's probably just a 40's thing," As he said this he turned to look at Steve with a smile on his face, "Don't worry about her, she'll be back to normal once she has had this cup of coffee."

Steve nodded, cast a quick glance at Natasha before turning to look back at Clint, "So, when do you want to start the lesson?"

"Just let me finish my coffee and then we'll start."

"Alright," Steve replied as he stood up to grab a quick drink of orange juice, "I am really looking forward to this. Thank you for agreeing."

Clint smiled at Steve, "No problem, thank you for agreeing to my condition," Natasha put down her cup and looked questioningly at Clint.

"What condition?"

"Nothing important," Steve replied before Clint even had the chance to open his mouth. Natasha looked between the two men, not convinced by Steve's answer, but she let it go.

"I'm going away for a few days," Natasha called as she left the room.

Steve looked at the doorway where Natasha just left in confusion, "Where's she going?" he asked as he turned to Clint.

Clint shrugged, "Don't know. She'll be fine though don't worry," Clint finished his coffee and went to go and put the cup in the dishwasher, "So, you ready?" Steve nodded his head and put the glass he had his orange juice in, in the dishwasher.

"Yep."

Clint motioned for Steve to follow him and walked out of the kitchen. A few moments later the two avengers arrived in the living room and Clint flopped down on one of the couches. Steve quickly sat down next to Clint.

"Alright," Clint said as he sat up properly in his seat, "let's start with the alphabet."

Clint lifted up his hand and moved it into the position for the letter 'A', "Alright Steve, this is the letter A."

Steve quickly brought up his hand and mimicked him. "Good," Clint shifted his hand to indicate 'B', "this is for the letter B."

* * *

"This is for 'S'," Clint held up his hand and showed it to Steve.

"Isn't that 'A'?"

"No, it's similar. The thumb is on the side of your fist for the letter 'A', but folded around the front of your fist for 'S'."

Steve moved his fingers into position as JARVIS called out, "Mister Barton?"

"Yes JARVIS."

"Director Fury is at the door. He says he has a mission for all available avengers."

"Let him in."

"Very well Sir."

Both Clint and Steve turned towards the door as they heard Fury's footsteps get closer.

"Agent Barton. Captain," Fury said as he walked through the doorway and moved towards the two avengers.

"Sir," They both answered in unison.

"I have a mission. Are the others available?"

Steve and Clint looked at each other before Steve responded, "No Sir. Tony is at a meeting in Japan, Thor is visiting his family in Asgard, Bruce is visiting his friend Betty and Natasha just left"

"So it is just you two?"

"Yes Sir."

"Alright then, you two will have to do it," Fury held out an envelope towards the two of them. Clint reached out and took it from the director and looked at what was inside.

"A helicopter will be here to pick you up in half an hour, be ready!" Fury said as he started to walk away.

"Wait," Clint said and the director stopped and looked back, "Am I flying or...?"

"You will be flying, the pilot will get off and a car will be sent to pick him up."

"Alright."

Fury stalked out of the room and Steve turned to look at Clint.

"Can the two of us do this?" Steve sounded quite concerned.

"Yeah, we can handle this. Come on, we've got half an hour, let's suit up," Clint said as he stood up from the sofa and walked towards his room. Steve quickly followed and moved to go and get ready, this was going to be his first mission without all the other avengers.

'Well,' Steve thought, 'this might be interesting.'


	7. Chapter 7

Clint walked out of the tower to where the helicopter had landed, his bow in his hand and quiver on his back. He walked up where Steve was talking with the pilot.

"So everything is fine with it?"

"Yes Sir. The helicopter is in good condition."

Clint walked up behind Steve and patted him on the back, "Don't worry so much."

"I was just checking," The pilot disappeared off into Stark Tower, presumably heading down to get in the car that SHIELD were sending for him. Steve and Clint climbed into the helicopter with Clint sitting in the pilot's seat.

"You ready for this Cap?" Clint asked as he looked over at the super soldier. Steve nodded and Clint started the engine and took off towards their target. Their mission was to take out a different helicopter which was supposedly heading for New York with some bombs. Unfortunately for Steve this did mean that the fight would be taking place over the ocean which was going to make him uneasy.

"So what's the plan when we get there?" Steve asked as he looked out of the window.

"I thought you were the star spangled man with a plan, shouldn't you have one?" Clint looked at Steve out of the corner of his eye, he did not look too happy with that particular reference.

"I'm going to assume that I have Stark to blame for that," Steve said with a sigh, why did that always haunt him.

"I'm blaming no one. Anyway, the plan is for me to get us as close as possible and then have you jump out and into their helicopter, according to the info in the envelope from Fury the sides of the helicopter are open so you should have no trouble getting in."

Steve nodded, "Fine, how long until we are there?"

"About 20 minutes, they are still a way out."

"Then can I ask you something?"

Clint turned to look at Steve quickly, "Sure, what is it?"

"I just wondered, were you born deaf?"

"No."

Steve looked over at Clint to see if he was going to elaborate without any further prompting, it looked unlikely so Steve spoke up, "How did you become deaf then?"

Clint sighed, he knew that he would have to tell them eventually but he really didn't want them all to know, "I was on a mission and I needed to get out. The people behind me were not too far behind and I couldn't shake them. I decided to try a new arrow that I had been given for the mission, a sonic arrow. I shot it and it worked as the other people behind me all fell and from the information I have received they are all permanently 100% deaf. However the arrow was new and I hadn't tested it so I didn't know the safe distance to shoot it, I managed to carry on running but I couldn't hear anything at all. When I got back to SHIELD HQ they did a test and said that I was 80% deaf because I was too close to the arrow when it detonated."

"Did the team that make the arrow not test it out for safe distances?" Steve asked as he tried to understand how an experimental piece of equipment was allowed out onto a mission.

"No, they hadn't gotten around to it but it was decided that it would be best if I had it with me, just in case," Clint did not look over at the Captain but kept his eyes firmly facing forwards.

"Why were you so reluctant to tell us?" Steve's voice had a hint of tension in it, he was angry that SHIELD had done that to Clint.

"Because I basically just made myself deaf because I was careless when I was shooting." Clint raised his voice slightly, he had always been angry with himself for what happened and did not like to tell people the story.

"It wasn't your fault, you were not to know that you were too close to the arrow. It's SHIELD's fault for giving you an untested piece of weaponry."

Clint didn't want to have an argument with Steve about this now so he decided it would be best to just change the subject, "We're only about 5 minutes away."

There were a few minutes of tense silence as they got closer and closer to the helicopter that they were targeting. As the helicopter came into sight Steve looked over at Clint who was concentrating hard on the target in front of them.

"You going to pull us next to them?"

"Yep," Clint replied as they got closer, "you ready Cap?"

However before Steve could respond a person on the other helicopter leaned out of the open side with a missile launcher.

"Shit!" Clint swore but he had no time to maneuver the helicopter out of the way before the missile had been fired and hit part of the rotor. "Damn it! Steve you need to jump out!"

"What?!"

"I know you don't want to be in that cold water but it's better than being stuck in here! I can only keep this up for so long, you need to jump out!" Clint was practically yelling at this point, he was barely managing to keep the helicopter from falling straight into the ocean.

Steve looked like he was about to protest but memories of being stuck in the plane under the sea shut him up. With one last look over at Clint, Steve opened the door and jumped out of the helicopter.

Steve plunged down into the ocean, the coldness of the water was making him flashback to the last time he crashed in the ocean. However Steve managed to overcome the memories and propel himself to the surface of the water just in time to see the helicopter fall into the sea. The helicopter slowly sank under the water and Steve began to look around for Clint.

When the helicopter was fully under the water Steve began to panic, there was no sign of the archer.

"Clint!" Steve yelled, praying that there would be some response, "Clint!"


	8. Chapter 8

"Clint!" Steve yelled once more, he spun around rapidly hoping to see the archer break the surface of the water.

Steve was scared, it wasn't very often that he found himself actually scared but he was. He didn't know what to do.

'Where is he? Is he trapped in the helicopter?' Steve tried to think quickly so he could help his friend. 'If he's trapped in the helicopter then I need to go and help him,' Steve decided that there was only one thing for it, he had to go underwater and find Clint.

Steve was about to dive under the water and try and see if he could see Clint when he heard something break the surface behind him. Quickly he spun around and was greeted with the sight of Clint breathing heavily as he tried to regain his breath.

"Clint!" Steve yelled as he swam next to the archer, "You're alive!"

"Yeah," Clint's voice was weak, "didn't think you'd get rid of me that easily did you?" Clint began to cough as he finished his sentence.

"You took a long time to get to the surface, I was getting worried."

"Well I'm alright. Now the issue is, what do we do now? We are stuck in the middle of the ocean," Clint looked around to try and see if there was any sign of land in the distance, there wasn't.

"You're right. What do we do?"

"I don't know..."

"Wait, I've got an idea!" Steve said as he looked at Clint.

"What?"

"You can hear me!"

"Yes I can hear you... wait that means that my hearing aids are still working! I can try and contact SHIELD through the comm unit," Clint's voice, while still weak, was getting stronger as he talked in excitement.

"Try," Steve prompted him as he swam even closer to Clint.

"Alright, hang on," Clint pulled one hand out of the water and started to fiddle with the earpiece, "Got it! Hello? Anyone there?"

"Agent Barton?"

"Yes! I need you to get a helicopter to my position as soon as possible."

"Sir, I think there is a GPS problem as the system has you placed in the middle of the ocean."

"That's us! The hostile aircraft we were after shot us down, we need someone to come a pick us up."

"There is a helicopter on its way Sir. It should be about twenty five minutes."

"Thank you," Clint turned off the comm unit in his hearing aid and turned to Steve.

"A helicopter should be here in about twenty five minutes."

"Good."

There was quiet after this and Clint kept on looking over at Steve to see how he was coping. After ten minutes of guessing how Steve was Clint decided to break the silence and ask, "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine," Steve's answer made Clint raise his eyebrow.

"Are you sure? You promised that you'd let me help you out in times like these."

Steve seemed to slump slightly in the water as he remembered his promise, "I'm... I'm cold and I keep on having flashbacks."

Clint swam as close to Steve as possible, "It's going to be alright. I won't let anything bad happen to you."

"I know," Steve paused for a moment, "I just... I can't help but think that I'm back there. I know that I'm not but it just..." Steve trailed off, unsure of how to express what he was feeling.

"You just can't help but be pulled back even though you logically know that you are not there?" Clint offered.

Steve looked up at Clint, "How do you know?"

"You're not the only one that has flashbacks. They do fade, eventually. I used to have flashbacks to my time at the circus, I don't have them anymore but I remember what it was like," Clint broke eye contact with Steve and looked up into the sky to check for any sign of the helicopter.

Steve looked like he was about to ask what Clint had flashbacks about and how he ended up in a circus but thought better of it. Steve decided to also look at the sky and scan it for any sign of the incoming rescue.

A while later Steve felt Clint tap his arm, they had taken to each looking in opposite directions to try and keep a lookout. Steve span around and saw that the helicopter was within sight.

As the helicopter drew closer the side of the helicopter opened and a man attached to a rope descended from the aircraft and into the ocean right next to Clint and Steve.

"One of you come here!" The man called above the roar of the rotor above them.

Clint pushed Steve forwards, knowing that he needed to get out of the cold water as soon as possible. The man grabbed hold of Steve and attached him to the rope as well before signaling someone in the aircraft to pull them both up. Clint watched as Steve was pulled into the helicopter and the man descended once more.

"Let's get out of here!" The man said as he attached Clint to the rope and they began to get pulled up towards the helicopter. As they came level with the open side of the helicopter, hands reached out and pulled the two of them inside and the door was shut firmly behind them. Clint quickly untangled himself from the rope and walked over to where Steve was sat.

"You okay?"

Steve nodded but said nothing as Clint took a seat next to him.

"Gentlemen," The two men looked up upon hearing the familiar voice.

"Director," Clint greeted as Steve nodded in acknowledgement.

"Let's talk through what just happened shall we?" Fury said as the helicopter speeded away back to Stark Tower.

'Great," Clint thought, 'just what we need. An interrogation by Fury after almost drowning. Can this day get any better?'


	9. Chapter 9

As the helicopter landed at Stark Tower Steve let out a sigh of relief, they were back and they could finally get away from Fury.

Clint picked up his bow and quiver as Steve grabbed his shield and opened the side of the helicopter. Without looking behind him Steve jumped out of the helicopter and walked quickly inside the tower leaving Clint to deal with Fury.

"I'll see you next time you have a mission for me then Sir," Clint said as he turned away from the helicopter to follow Steve inside.

"Agent Barton," Fury's voice made Clint turn around.

"Yes Sir."

"I heard that Stark improved your hearing aids."

Clint wasn't entirely sure where Fury was going with that statement but answered none the less, "Yes Sir. He did."

Fury exited the helicopter and walked up and stood infront of Clint, "What improvements did he make?"

"He made sure they could handle electrical charges and being surrounded by water. If it weren't for those improvements I would have been deaf since I hit the water."

Fury started to walk inside the tower so Clint followed wondering what the director wanted and why he was asking about the improvements. "Did he upgrade your spare pair as well?" Fury asked as they walked into the living room.

"Yes Sir."

"I want your spare pair."

"Sir?" Clint was taken aback by this request. The director knew how protective he was of his hearing aids, not to mention the fact that he needed his spare pair in case something happened.

"I want the technicians at SHIELD to take a look at the improvements so we can apply them to any other hearing aids in future."

Clint thought about it for a moment. On one hand he did not want to hand over his spare pair to SHIELD to take a look at, he did not trust SHIELD technicians. Then again he knew that if he refused then any other deaf agents would not get the benefits and would have to live with the issues that he used to deal with.

"Alright. You can take my spare pair, but I want a time frame. How long will you take them for?" Clint wasn't sure how the director was going to respond to his demand for a time scale but Clint was nervous about how long he would have to go without his back up pair.

"I will give them back next week," The director said, there was no room for argument in his voice so Clint merely nodded and walked out of the living room to go and retrieve them.

Clint opened the door to his room and walked over to the table by his bed. He sat down on the edge of his bed and opened the top drawer to find the case where he kept his hearing aids. He quickly found the case and closed the drawer but did not stand up.

He sat there for a moment looking down at the case in his hands. For so long he had kept it all to himself and no one ever mentioned his deafness, now all of a sudden everyone was talking about it and wanting to look at his hearing aids. Now Clint had never trusted easily, especially about this, so this increase in interest was stressing him out a bit.

'I know that the avengers are just trying to help, so I don't mind so much. But since when did Fury take any interest in what my hearing aids were like. Surely they could just let Tony sort out the hearing aids rather than having to teach the SHIELD technicians how to improve them,' Clint thought as he stood up from the bed and walked slowly back to the living room.

As he walked in he saw that Fury was talking to Steve, who turned around when he heard footsteps. Clint walked up to the pair and held out the case to Fury, who took it off him and put the case in his coat pocket.

"I'll see you both on the next mission," Fury said as he turned and left the room. When Fury's footsteps faded Steve turned to look at Clint.

"Did you just give him your spare hearing aids?" Steve asked, he knew how protective Clint was.

"Yeah, he wants the SHIELD technicians to look at them so they can improve the hearing aids of other deaf agents," Clint said as he walked over to the couch and sat down.

Steve followed and sat down next to Clint, "Brave thing to do."

"Well it would be unfair on the other agents if I didn't," Clint responded, he didn't want to think about the fact that he had no back ups now, "You want to finish learning the alphabet?"

"Yeah sure."

"Alright, why don't you show me what you remember from before."

Clint relaxed a bit as he watched Steve try to remember the different letters, he corrected Steve a few times but Steve was a quick learner. "Well done, you managed to remember most of them. Alright, let's carry on then. This is 'T'."


	10. Chapter 10

Clint was very impressed with Steve, he was a much faster learner than Clint would have thought. It had only been three days since Steve had learnt the alphabet and he could already cope with a very basic conversation. They had spent a lot of time working on it since the other avengers had not arrived back from the various places that they were. However they were all due back today which meant that there would probably be less lessons from now on.

"Hey Clint," Steve said as he walked into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of apple juice.

"Hey, the others are coming back today aren't they?" Clint asked from his seat at the table.

"Yeah. Natasha called and said she'd be back tonight, Tony is due back at lunchtime, Thor will be back at some point and Bruce is on his way back," Steve answered as he finished his drink and placed the glass in the dishwasher.

"Cool," Clint said as he stood up and walked over to Steve, "You want another lesson before they come back?"

"Sounds good," Steve replied and the two men left the room to go sit in the living room for their lesson.

"Alright," Clint said as he sat down on the couch, "let's just see what you remember."

Clint signed 'What is your name?'

Steve slowly responded with 'My name is S-T-E-V-E. You?'

Clint replied before asking 'Where do you live?'

Steve paused for a moment before signing 'N-Y, where do you live?'

Clint answered 'N-Y. How are you?'

Steve was about to respond when the two men heard a door open and quickly turned to see who had returned.

"Hey guys," Bruce said as he walked through the door, "I hear that you two have been having fun."

"Fury told you about the crash then," Steve said as he stood up to greet him.

"Yeah. What else have you two been up to? It must be odd with the tower so empty."

Steve nodded in agreement as Clint answered the question, "I've been teaching Steve some sign language."

Bruce looked up, he seemed quite interested by this, "Is he any good?"

"He's learning very quickly," Clint replied. Bruce walked over to the couch and flopped down on it. "How was Betty?"

"She was alright. It was good to see her again after all this time," Bruce took off his glasses and wiped them on his shirt before returning them to their place on his nose, "Would you mind if you had another student?"

Clint sat down next to Bruce, "You want to learn sign language as well?"

"Yeah, I've always been intrigued by it and wanted to learn. Plus it would probably help as a doctor if I ever had to treat someone that is deaf."

"Alright, I'll teach you," Clint relaxed back into his seat, "In fact, Steve you can teach Bruce the alphabet."

Steve looked like he was about to protest but decided against it and turned to look at Bruce, "I'm not going to be a great teacher but I'll try," Steve looked very uncomfortable, he was sure that he would screw up and get it all wrong.

Clint, having seen Steve's discomfort, said, "I'll stay here and make sure that you get it right, don't worry you'll be fine."

Steve was about to begin when they heard the sound of more footsteps. The three men turned to look at the door just in time to see Tony and Thor walk through, both of them laughing loudly. Upon seeing the three men sat on the couch Thor walked away from Tony and towards them.

"My friends!" Thor boomed, "How good it is to see you all!"

Tony slowly walked over after Thor and greeted the three men, "Missed me?"

The three avengers on the couch decided not to bother replying to that and instead talk to Thor, "How was your family?" Bruce questioned as the other two men sat down on the opposite sofa.

"My family were fine. Father is well and Mother misses me but they both allowed me to return so all is well."

"What about Loki?" Clint asked.

Thor seemed to shrink slightly and the happy look on his face faded, "He is not well. His punishment is taking a lot out of him and has made him weak. He refuses to talk to anyone and he hardly eats anything, I fear that he has given up on life. I am aware of the laws that he broke and the suffering he caused but it pains me to see my little brother in such a state."

The room was quiet for a moment, not sure how to respond. Sure Loki was an evil guy who had tried to kill them all but he was also Thor's brother so they did not want to be cruel. Bruce broke the silence, "I'm sure that he will survive Thor. He's a strong guy."

Thor nodded solemnly before raising his head and smiling at his friends once more, "Let us forget that for now and celebrate once again being together," The others all smiled and let the previous topic go.

"So, what have you two been up to since we've been gone?" Tony asked, "I am impressed that the tower is still in one piece."

"Not much," Steve answered, he did not want Tony to bring up the failed mission.

However Tony seemed to read his mind as he spoke up once more, "Really? Because a little birdy told me that the two of you went on a mission and managed to crash into the ocean."

"Clint told you that?!" Thor asked, confused as usual by the 'midgardian phrases'.

"No, it's just a figure of speech," Bruce replied as Clint glared at Tony.

"Anyway," Steve said to try and change the conversation, "Bruce, when do you want to do the lesson?"

"I don't mind. We can start now if you want," Bruce replied, "Is that okay with you Clint?" Steve and Clint looked at each other before nodding.

"What lesson is this?" Tony asked, he was not used to not knowing something and it was frustrating him.

"I've been teaching Steve sign language and Bruce wanted to learn as well so I suggested that Steve teach Bruce."

"I would also like to learn this 'sign language' if that is okay?" Thor said as he looked over at Clint, "One of the most important things in a battle is communication and I wish to be able to do that even if you are unable to hear me."

Clint nodded in agreement at the same time as Steve. Tony looked at the group before speaking up, "Well if you are all going to learn then I guess I may as well join in. I don't want to be the only one unable to talk to you when you can't hear us."

Clint looked slightly shocked that Tony wanted to learn as well but quickly agreed to teach them all. He had a quick glance at Steve and saw that he was looking slightly worried at the prospect of teaching them all, especially when that included Tony.

"Alright so, do you guys want to start now?" Steve asked, his voice was steady even though he still looked worried.

"Yeah." Tony, Thor and Bruce all managed to say in unison. Clint nodded and moved to sit a bit closer to Steve.

"Don't worry. You'll be fine, you know the alphabet well and after that I'll take over teaching. You might have to sit through a bit of a recap as the others catch up but..." Clint said quietly so only Steve could hear him.

"That's fine. I know I know it but, I just don't want Tony to start making fun of me if I screw up," Steve admitted quietly.

"There is one ground rule though guys, Tony this applies to you as well. If you do not listen or do not respect whoever is teaching you then you will no longer be welcome at these lessons," Clint said after making sure that they were all listening to him.

The avengers all nodded in agreement, even if Tony did look slightly reluctant to agree. Steve shot Clint a grateful look before turning to the other avengers, "Alright, so the alphabet," Steve held up his hand and adjusted his fingers until they were in the right position, "This is the sign for the letter 'A'."

* * *

Natasha walked through the door to the living room, she had finally returned to the tower and had been informed by JARVIS that the other avengers were all in the living room. As she walked in she noticed that they were all sat on the couches, their hands lifted up. She watched at Steve changed the position of his hand and saw the other avengers, minus Clint, all try and mimic his hand shape.

Clint looked up as he noticed that Natasha was in the room. He cast a quick glance at Steve, saw that he seemed to be coping fine and stood up to walk over to Natasha.

"Hey, where have you been?" He said as he walked up next to her.

Natasha didn't break her gaze from the other avengers as she replied, "Nowhere important. What's going on?"

Clint turned to look back at the group and smiled as Thor struggled to copy Steve and Bruce tried to help him by moving his fingers into position for him. "I started teaching Steve sign language while you were all away. These guys came back and decided that they wanted to learn as well."

Natasha chuckled as Tony moved his hand into the wrong position and Steve gently corrected him. "Steve's teaching them?"

"Yeah, I thought it might reinforce his learning or something. I'm going to take over once Steve's taught them all the alphabet," Clint said as he started to walk back to the group, "Tony, you promised that you'd respect whoever was teaching you. He's just trying to help you."

Tony said nothing but nodded before concentrating on moving his hand into the right position. When Tony managed to do it, a huge grin broke out across his face in triumph.

"Well done!" Steve said to Tony before addressing the group as a whole, "Alright, onto the next letter."


	11. Chapter 11

"Hey Clint?"

Clint turned around as he heard his name being called. "What do you want Tony?"

"The answer to a question," Tony replied.

"What question?" Clint asked, he started to get the feeling that this was going to end badly for him somehow.

"This one: Why do you keep tapping your ears?"

Clint looked at Tony confused, "What do you mean?"

"Like just now," Clint stopped his hand where it was and noticed that it was touching his ear. He quickly lowered his hand and turned to look at Tony.

"It's just a subconscious thing," Clint replied, he did not see what the big deal was. So what, he touched his ear all the time, apparently, it's not like it mattered.

"Yes I gathered that when you didn't know what I was talking about. But why do you do it? Come on you must know," Tony asked as he sat down on the sofa next to Clint.

Clint thought for a moment, he was not sure why he touched his ear. However as he started to think about it he came to realise that there was a reason, "It's because my hearing aids move around a bit in my ear so I push them back into place," Clint wondered how he had never consciously noticed that.

Tony nodded as if that was the answer he was expecting, "Do you want me to fix that?"

"Why would I trust you to fix anything? Last time you set fire to half of your lab," Clint retorted.

"Hey I fixed them didn't I?"

Clint relented, "Yeah you did. I don't have any spare hearing aids, how long will this take?" He didn't particularly want to spend hours unable to hear anything.

"I'm not sure, not too long hopefully," Tony held out his hand expectantly, "Come on, you know you'll end up giving them to me anyway."

Clint decided it was best not to argue, he was right and Clint always gave in in the end. He took the hearing aids out of his ears and handed them to Tony before turning around and heading for the door. He almost reached the doorway when he felt a tap on his shoulder, it was Tony.

Clint sighed and signed 'What do you want?'

Tony quickly signed 'Thank you' before leaving the room and Clint stunned in his wake, he could not believe that Tony Stark had just thanked him. He shook his head and walked off, he was going to go to his room and sit there until Tony returned with his hearing aids.

'Damn SHIELD, taking my spare pair so I can't hear anything until Tony is done,' Clint thought as he walked through the corridor.

He had almost reached his doorway when he felt another tap on his shoulder. He spun around expecting Tony to be stood there but saw that it was in fact Steve who was saying something but Clint could not hear him, obviously, and he was talking too quickly for Clint to read his lips.

Clint quickly waved his hands in front of Steve's face before pointing at his ears in an attempt to tell him that he could not hear. Luckily Steve managed to catch on pretty fast and started to sign instead.

'Where are your hearing aids?' Steve asked, he knew that Clint would never willingly be deaf for any period of time.

'T-O-N-Y' Clint spelt by way of answer, he figured that it was pretty self-explanatory.

Steve nodded before signing 'You want to watch a movie with us?'

Clint decided that Steve probably meant that the other avengers were going to watch something and he was invited but he was quick to point out 'I can't hear the movie,' This seemed to make Steve think for a moment, the avengers were hoping to all hang out and watch a movie, or 'catch Steve up on modern movies' as Tony had once called it.

Clint stood there as Steve tried to find a solution before he came up with an idea 'S-U-B-T-I-T-L-E-S' Steve spelt.

Clint laughed 'I know that, I don't like making people watch movies with them.'

Steve looked confused 'We don't mind,' Clint was about to tell Steve that he didn't feel like it and just disappear into his room until Tony was done but the look on Steve's face made him change his mind.

'If you are sure,' Clint signed. Steve's face lit up and he turned around and started walking towards the living room where the movie was set up. Clint hated it when he had to use subtitles, the last time he watched a movie with subtitles the person he was watching the movie with got so fed up of them popping up at the bottom of the screen that they stood up and left before the movie was halfway. The only reason he was deaf at that time was that SHIELD had not yet made him his hearing aids and the person decided to take his mind off the long wait by watching the movie. Needless to say when they left his deafness was very much on his mind. He knew that they were annoying so he just gave up and avoided any television or movie when he could not hear anything.

The two men reached the living room and moved to sit down on the unoccupied sofa. Clint watched as Steve started to talk to the others. He was still slightly rusty on his lip reading but Clint tried to decipher what was being said none the less.

"Tony's got Clint's hearing aids so he can't hear us right now. Is everyone alright with putting subtitles on?" Clint thought that that was what the Captain said at least.

He looked around the room to see how the others were responding and saw that they were all nodding in agreement. Bruce picked up the remote and went to the menu of the film and selected subtitles before starting the movie. JARVIS automatically dimmed the lights as the movie began, Clint relaxed back into his seat and began watching the film and reading the subtitles.

Natasha tapped him on the shoulder, she knew about what happened the last time he watched a film with subtitles. She had asked him why he avoided watching films when he was deaf and Clint told her, she quickly went and yelled at the person who had done that to him. She subtly signed 'Are you okay?' to him, she didn't want the others to know that there was a problem.

Clint responded in the same manner 'I'm fine,' Natasha decided to not push it any further and turned to look back at the screen. Clint also switched his focus to the film, it was Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring and Clint loved that movie. He was the one who suggested that it was added to the list of films that Steve and Thor had to catch up on. He suggested it mainly because he was fed up of Steve and Thor's looks of confusion every time Tony called him Legolas.

Clint soon got absorbed in the movie, he barely even noticed that he was reading the subtitles as he got drawn into the story. When the Fellowship reached Moria he broke his gaze away from the film and looked around at the other avengers who were watching the movie with him. Steve was watching with a look of amazement in his eyes as he took in the visual effect, Thor had a similar look but he also looked excited for the next fight scene. Bruce was sat watching the film but he had seen it before so did not have the same look on his face. Natasha looked rather bored but Clint realised that was probably due to the amount of times that he had made her watch the trilogy with him.

Natasha realised that someone was watching her and quickly turned to look at Clint. Clint looked so happy at that moment as he once again looked around the room before looking back at Natasha. Natasha smiled at him before turning back to the movie, she pretended to hate it but she didn't mind watching it as long as it made Clint happy.

Clint returned his gaze to the screen as the Fellowship got trapped in the mines of Moria. He jumped slightly when he felt a hand on his shoulder before swinging around to see who it was. Tony was stood behind him, smiling at the sight of the team all engrossed in the film. Tony held out his hand and Clint grabbed his hearing aids and put them back into place.

Clint grinned when he could hear again and noticed that the hearing aids felt much more solid in their place in his ear.

"Did I fix them?" Tony asked quietly, trying not to disturb the others who were watching the film.

"They feel good."

"Do they feel like they might fall out still?" Tony sounded slightly worried that his adjustments would not be enough to fix the problem.

Clint smiled at Tony, "They feel secure. Thank you Tony, you did a good job."

"Good," was Tony's quick response as he moved to sit on the sofa next to Clint.

"You can take the subtitles off now guys," Clint said as he shifted sideways a bit so that Tony could have more room.

Bruce, who had the remote, quickly paused the movie and returned to the menu to turn off the subtitles. "We don't mind you know. They aren't too bothersome," Bruce said as he switched the DVD back to the movie.

The avengers all started to concentrate on the film once more but Natasha quickly leaned over and whispered in Clint's ear, "You can trust us. We don't mind when you can't hear us and we'll do whatever we can to make you comfortable when that happens."

"I know," Clint whispered back, his eyes still glued to the film, "I know."

**A/N: There is one more chapter to go now I think. I hope you enjoyed that :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Wow, last chapter. I just wanted to say thank you for reading this story and reviewing and following and favoriting. I'm so pleased with how this story went and I just wanted to say thank you to all of you for reading it. Hope you enjoy this last chapter. **

**I am going to write little side chapters after this but this is the end of the main story.**

"Mister Barton?"

Clint jumped slightly at the voice that interrupted his thoughts, "Yes JARVIS?"

"Director Fury is here to see you," JARVIS said, "Shall I send him up here?"

Clint sat up on his bed and thought for a moment about the best course of action, "No, send him to the lounge. I'll be there in a minute."

"Very well Sir."

Clint swung his legs off the bed and stood up. He quickly looked in the mirror to make sure he was presentable, Fury was his boss after all. After he straightened out his t-shirt Clint opened the door to his room and shut it behind him as he walked out and towards the lounge.

Clint walked into the lounge and saw that Fury was sat on one of the couches, "Sir," Clint greeted.

"Agent Barton," Fury responded as he motioned Clint to sit on the couch opposite him. Clint quickly moved to follow the instruction and lowered himself to the sofa before looking up at Fury.

"Do you have my hearing aids?" Clint asked, he assumed that that was the reason that Fury was here especially since none of the other avengers were in the tower.

Fury reached into his pocket and pulled out the case which held Clint's hearing aids and threw it to Clint. "The technicians think that they can apply the improvements to all SHIELD hearing aids now."

Clint opened the case slightly and looked inside to make sure that the hearing aids were really there and in good condition. Once he was satisfied that the hearing aids had not be destroyed he closed the case and slid it into his pocket before turning back to Fury.

"There's something I want to know agent," Fury said before Clint got a chance to open his mouth.

"Yes?"

"Why did you let me have them?" Clint looked at Fury like he had gone mad, "If I had asked you a few months ago you would have sworn at me and locked them away to make sure I could never find them. But you gave them to me willingly, what changed?"

Clint thought for a moment, it was true that before he would never have even considered letting someone take his hearing aids from him, even if they were his spare pair. "It would have been selfish to keep the improvements to myself when my hearing aids could help other people," Clint responded.

Fury raised an eyebrow, "That would have been the same months ago but you still wouldn't have done it."

Clint sighed, "I know what you are getting at Sir. I have started to trust people more and that is a dangerous thing, I know that. I will try to cut the ties I have made," Clint looked down at his hands, he knew it was dangerous to trust people in his profession and yet somehow the other avengers had made him trust them anyway.

"It may be a dangerous thing for someone who works on solo missions but you need trust if you are going to work in a team. You are an avenger and you need to trust the others in your team otherwise it will never work. I am glad that you started to trust them, it means that this team may end up working after all," Fury said as he looked at Clint. He knew that it had been drilled into the archers head that you should never trust anyone but Clint wasn't a solo worker anymore and that needed an attitude change.

"Does that mean that I will no longer be sent on solo missions?" Clint asked, he wasn't to sure what to think about the fact that he had to change how he worked. Sure he trusted the other avengers but he still thought of himself as a solo worker, not a team member.

"You may be sent on a few but the majority of your missions will be with at least one of the other avengers. Your role is changing Agent Barton and you need to accept that you are part of a team," Fury said hoping that Clint would accept the change and be able to make it work.

Clint looked up at Fury quickly before returning his gaze to his hands, 'I can do this. Be a part of the team, I trust the others and they trust me,' Clint thought, 'I guess I became a team member without really noticing.'

"I think that I already have accepted that Sir," Clint responded as he looked up at Fury, "I trust them with my life."

Fury nodded, "Good. I've heard that you are teaching the other avengers sign language."

"Yes Sir, they wanted to learn in case I lost my hearing again for any reason so we could still communicate," Clint wasn't sure where Fury was going with this particular subject.

"Make sure that they learn it properly, if you lose your hearing you all need to be able to communicate properly. If you all fail a mission because you didn't teach them properly then I will not be happy. Understood?"

"Yes Sir."

Fury stood up, "I will see you next time I have a mission for you then. Goodbye Agent," With this Fury moved and exited the room as Clint watched him go.

He wasn't sure how long he sat there, looking at the door where Fury had left, thinking about the conversation he had just had. He was broken out of his thoughts when the other avengers all walked through the door.

"Hey guys," Clint said as he turned back around to face the couch that Fury had been sat on.

"What did Fury want?" Natasha asked as she moved to sit next to Clint. The others all sat down as well as they wanted to know that answer as well.

"He gave me back my spare hearing aids and then we talked for a bit," Clint responded, he wasn't sure if he wanted to elaborate. However it seemed that the team wanted him to as he heard Tony speak up.

"What did you talk about?"

"About how I have become more trusting since becoming an avenger and about our sign language lessons."

"Does he want us to stop them?" Steve asked, he wasn't sure why the director would have brought them up unless he was not happy with them.

"No, he wanted to make sure that I teach you all properly. He said that if we failed a mission because I didn't teach you all properly that he would not be happy."

There was a moment of silence after this before Bruce broke it, "That's good. I'm also glad that you trust us, we are a team at the end of the day."

"Yeah," Clint said, "Yeah we are."

**A/N: Sorry about the bad ending :P Hope you enjoyed it anyway. **


	13. Bonus Chapter 1

**A/N****: So I decided that I would do a little side chapter about something I referenced in chapter 3, Tony causing an explosion while working on Cap's shield. So I guess this is the first bonus chapter, hope you enjoy :-D**

"Hey Steve?"

Steve turned around when he heard his name being called, as he spun he saw that it was Tony who was trying to get his attention, "Yeah Tony?"

"I need to borrow your shield."

Steve was quite taken aback by this, everyone knew that he didn't like people messing with his shield. It was his way to defend himself so it was understandable as far as he was concerned. "Why?"

"I just want to fix it up a bit, the paint work is out of fashion and it is chipped," Tony said, "I can repaint it with some more resilient paint so it won't get damaged so much at the same time as updating it to make it look like it actually belongs in this century."

"I like the way it looks."

"I'm not going to change it that much just use a different shade of blue and put an 'A' in the middle instead of the star," Steve opened his mouth but before he could ask for an explanation as to why his shield needed the letter 'A' on it Tony was already answering it, "You know because you are part of the avengers and so it would be cool if it was on your shield."

Steve looked at Tony, he really didn't want to agree, he liked the way it looked and it wasn't chipped too badly but he knew it would be useless. "Fine, you can borrow my shield but be careful with it," Steve walked off towards the gym and tried not to think about the damage that Tony could be doing to his shield.

* * *

Tony looked over his design carefully to make sure that it was perfect. He had spent the last two hours designing and redesigning the new paintwork on Steve's shield and he was pretty sure that he was finally happy with it. Apart from the letter 'A' in the centre of the shield it looked pretty much the same just a few subtle changes as Tony used slightly different shades of blue and red.

"JARVIS, paint it."

"Right away Sir. It will take about one hour to complete."

"Tell me when it's done," Tony replied before opening up a different project and starting to work on it. However about ten minutes later Bruce walked into the lab and Tony forgot about the work he was doing in favour of talking to his favourite scientist.

"Hey Bruce, what you doing?"

Bruce turned to look at Tony before walking over and sitting on the desk near him, "Steve said that you were redesigning his shield."

"Yeah I am, want to see? JARVIS is painting it right now," Bruce nodded and Tony discarded the project he was working on previously and pulled up the new design.

Bruce looked over the design for a moment before turning to Tony once more, "Looks good. The 'A' is for the avengers right?"

"Finally someone who understands my genius. Steve just looked at me blankly until I told him why I was putting it on there," Tony ranted, his arms wildly gesticulating as he spoke.

Tony took no notice of where his arms were flying as he continued talking about how they were all stupid apart from the two of them, but, out the corner of his eye, Bruce noticed that one of the robotic arms was moving towards where Tony's arms were flailing.

"Tony! Move your..."

SMACK!

Tony quickly dropped his arm as he felt it smack against something cold and metal that was not there before. He looked up to see that one of the robotic arms that was painting Steve's shield had moved towards him for some unknown reason.

Tony turned back to Bruce in time to see his eyes widen dramatically. "Bruce, what...?"

CRASH!

Tony spun around again to see the robotic arm crash to the floor after it had already fallen onto the desk behind him. Sparks were flying out of the piece of machinery on the floor as well as the part of the arm that was still where it originally was.

"Tony, I think we should do something..." Tony turned to look at Bruce, he knew that he was right. However once again it was too late and Tony felt a sudden heat behind him. Slowly Tony turned around to see that a small fire had started on the desk where the sparks from the ceiling were landing.

"Shit!"

Tony was stood there looking at the flame as it grew, you'd think that the amount of times he had blown something up or caused a fire that he would at least know how to react. Unfortunately it appeared that he hadn't as Bruce grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the rapidly growing fire.

Bruce had just managed to get Tony behind the glass walls of his lab when a cloud of white smoke appeared inside the lab.

"Thank God for Dummy!" Tony said before turning to Bruce to explain, "I taught Dummy fire safety when I was developing the suit, knew it would be useful at some point."

"How the hell did you manage to break that arm with just your hand?" Bruce asked as he looked at the piece of machinery lying on the floor.

Tony shrugged, "I never know how I do these things but they keep on happening to me."

* * *

Steve looked up as Tony walked into the kitchen holding his shield. Silently Tony held out the shield for Steve to take.

"Thanks," Steve inspected his shield, "I like the new design."

"Good," Tony started to walk out of the room but Steve's voice stopped him.

"By the way, do you know why I smelt smoke earlier?" Tony shook his head but Steve continued, "Or why I heard loud banging and crashing noises?"

"Probably came from outside," Tony replied before quickly exiting the room before Steve could ask anymore questions.

Steve chuckled as he placed the shield on the kitchen counter and walked over to the fridge to grab a drink.

"Hey JARVIS?"

"Yes Sir?"

"Thanks for showing me the footage from Tony's lab earlier."

"It was no problem Sir."


	14. Bonus Chapter 2

**A/N****: So this chapter is all about sign names. I had heard of sign names before and was interested in them but I was reminded by a comment from AlyCat3 and I have decided to write a one-shot with Clint giving everyone sign names. I have done quite a bit of research into them but if I have gotten anything wrong then please leave a review and I will try and fix that.**

Steve walked into the kitchen, he had just finished his morning run and had decided to grab some breakfast before starting the rest of his day. He turned towards the fridge but stopped when he saw Clint and Natasha wildly gesturing at each other.

"What's going on?" Steve asked as he walked a bit further into the room. The two assassins spun around to look at him before quickly turning back and signing something else. Steve tried his best to keep up with the conversation but lost track when Clint covered one eye in the middle of the sentence.

"Um... guys?"

The two avengers looked around once more and seemed to decide to actually talk to him this time.

"Sorry Steve. Thought you could keep up," Clint said.

"I got lost when you covered your eye. What is that sign?" He didn't even finish speaking before Natasha and Clint were laughing together, "What?"

"Yeah, what did we miss?" Steve turned around at the sound of Tony's voice in time to see the other avengers all walk into the room.

"Sorry," Clint could barely talk as he was still breathless from laughing, "I'll explain now."

The avengers all looked at him expectantly as he calmed himself down enough to talk normally.

"Alright so you have probably noticed that it is really boring and annoying when you have to spell people's names out right?" They all nodded in agreement so Clint carried on talking, "Well instead of spelling it out every time we have something called sign names. So instead of spelling out a name every time you mention someone you just use their sign name."

"So when you covered your eye?" Steve asked, he was starting to understand a bit but it was a confusing concept.

"That is the sign name that we have for Fury. All the deaf agents at SHIELD use that as his sign name."

"So I can pick a sign name?" Thor asked, he seemed quite pleased with the idea but Clint quickly corrected him.

"No, someone in the deaf community has to give you your sign name otherwise you might pick one that is used for someone else. I got given my sign name by one of the deaf agents that I worked with once."

"What is your sign name?" This question came from Bruce who looked quite intrigued by the idea.

"This," Clint mimicked pulling an arrow out of his quiver and drawing his bow backwards, "it was simple really. I'm the only one in SHIELD who really uses a bow so it wouldn't be easily confused with anyone and it is not an existing sign."

"So you can't use a sign that means something else?"

"No, you can slightly change a sign but otherwise you have to do something that has no other meaning."

"So what is Tasha's?"

Clint held out both of his arms as if he were holding Natasha's pistols, "It's been her sign name for as long as she has been in SHIELD."

"So what sort of thing is it?" Bruce questioned.

"It is generally some sort of characteristic that is specific for that person. Natasha's sign name is that because that is how she used to intimidate all of the new recruits, Fury's is pretty obvious as is mine. Another example would be Phil's sign," Clint lifted up his hand to his neck and pretended to straighten a tie, "everyone at SHIELD knew him and no one ever saw him without a tie, it seemed appropriate."

There was a moment of silence before Tony broke it, "So what is my sign name?"

Clint turned to Natasha and they seemed to have a silent conversation with just their eyes before they both turned back to the group.

"Do you all want to know your sign names?" Clint asked, the avengers were all nodding before he had even finished his sentence. "Fine but pay attention because I'm not going over this again."

Clint turned slightly to look at Tony, "Yours requires little explanation," he said as he brought his hands up in front of him and mimed an explosion. Tony smirked at this, nodded and turned to look at Steve who was stood next to him.

Clint brought his arm up in front of him, "This is your sign name. It's meant to look like you're holding an invisible shield in front of you," Steve moved his arm up to the position he normally held his shield in. "Yeah, that's your sign name."

"Bruce this is yours," Clint drew a symbol in the air.

"What are you drawing? I didn't catch it," Bruce asked as he tried to replay the moment in his head to decipher the character that was drawn.

"It's lower case gamma."

"To symbolise the radiation."

Clint nodded before turning to Thor, "And finally, your sign name is..." Clint held out his hand beside him, drew it upwards and formed a fist before quickly lowering his hand and spreading his fingers.

The team all looked at him quizzically, "Why?" Thor asked, his confusion was etched across his face.

Clint replayed the movement but this time yelled "ANOTHER!" at the same time. A look of understanding spread across the faces of all the avengers as they started to laugh.

"Well I guess it is appropriate," Steve said as he quickly recovered from the brief laughing fit. He walked over to the fridge and grabbed some stuff to make the breakfast he had forgotten about.

The other avengers all seemed to remember that they were hungry at this point and moved into the kitchen to get some food, which meant that they would wait in the kitchen with plates until Steve decided to give them some food which he had made. It was unfortunate that Steve was the only one who could actually make any edible food but at least he didn't mind cooking for the whole team.

Once everyone had got their food on their plates they all moved towards the table and sat down to eat before parting ways to get on with the day. After a few minutes of silence it was Thor who broke the silence by chuckling slightly.

"What?"

"I was just remembering Tony's sign name," Thor replied as he put down his knife and fork and mimed an explosion.

"Like yours is any better," Tony replied and soon everyone was talking about their sign names and making fun of eachother as they carried on eating their breakfast while enjoying the limited amount of time that they had to just be a group of friends.


	15. Bonus Chapter 3

**A/N****: So I know that I kind of explained how Clint became deaf in chapter 7 but I decided that I would write a side chapter about it as well so that I can go into more detail. **

_"I was on a mission and I needed to get out. The people behind me were not too far behind and I couldn't shake them. I decided to try a new arrow that I had been given for the mission, a sonic arrow. I shot it and it worked as the other people behind me all fell and from the information I have received they are all permanently 100% deaf. However the arrow was new and I hadn't tested it so I didn't know the safe distance to shoot it, I managed to carry on running but I couldn't hear anything at all. When I got back to SHIELD HQ they did a test and said that I was 80% deaf because I was too close to the arrow when it detonated."_

_- From chapter 7_

"Clint you need to get out of there," Clint could hear Phil calling into his earpiece. He knew that, the problem was that he couldn't get out, at least not while they were still chasing him.

The mission was supposed to be a relatively simple one, get in kill the target and get out again. However it seemed that the security was better than they expected and very quickly started chasing Clint after he had killed the target.

"Get rid of them Barton, we need to get out of here!" Phil was starting to sound a bit worried which put Clint on edge. Phil was always the epitome of calmness even in bad situations so when he got worried everyone should be extremely worried.

Clint tried to shake them off as he sped up slightly but the security people were still right behind him, too close for him to be able to make a clean getaway. He needed to get rid of them. Clint quickly started to run through his options in his head.

'I can't run any faster and they aren't slowing down at all so I can't outrun them. If I turn to try and shoot at them then the ones who aren't hit will catch me. How many of them are there?' Clint quickly looked behind to count to people before turning back and turning to the left to run down another corridor. 'Ten of them, I reckon I could shoot two or three arrows before they caught up, it's not enough.'

"Clint listen to me. You need to find a way to shake them off so we can make a clean getaway and get back to base," Phil's voice broke his train of thought.

'Damn, alright other options,' Clint racked his brain to try and find a solution when he remembered something that just might be able to help. 'That sonic arrow, I could use that,' Clint knew that he hadn't tested it so it was risky but it seemed like the only option.

Clint reached into his quiver and pulled out the new arrow, quickly he notched the arrow and slowed down slightly as he turned his body and drew the bow back. He took a deep breath and released the arrow. As soon as the arrow left his bow Clint turned back around and sped back up, he heard the arrow make contact and detonate and that was the last thing he heard.

Silence.

Clint carried on running as fast as he could towards the exit where Phil was waiting with a helicopter to get them out of there. His head and ears were hurting so badly but he managed to keep going, he knew he had to get there as fast as possible.

He looked behind quickly and saw that the people who were chasing him were on the floor, he didn't blame them, it hurt like hell and he was further away. He reached the exit and practically flew into the helicopter and slammed the side door closed as the chopper started to lift off.

Clint looked up to see Phil's mouth moving but he couldn't hear anything. He started waving his arms around to try and catch his attention. When he saw that Phil had stopped talking Clint pointed at his ears before shaking his head, hoping it would be enough to give the message to Phil.

Phil looked concerned as he nodded before moving to sit down next to Clint. They sat there in silence as the chopper flew them back to base.

Clint read the piece of paper that the SHIELD doctor had given him again. '80% deaf' is what it read. Clint grabbed a pen off the doctor before scribbling down a question and handing it to the man.

'How much will I be able to hear?'

Clint watched at the doctor wrote down his response before grabbing the sheet of paper, needing to know the answer.

'We will make you hearing aids but without them we believe you will only be able to hear loud, high pitched noises. It is different for everyone but that is what we expect you to be able to hear.'

'How long until I will get the hearing aids?'

'Only two days.'

Clint nodded and swung his legs off the medical bed he was sat on. He stood up and walked out of the room. Clint quickly reached his quarters and lay down on the bed.

'What am I going to do for two days?'

**A/N****: I know that this chapter seems to be leading onto another however I am not planning on following this up. **


End file.
